


It was only a little...

by ArtemisWalsh



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Curses, Gen, Wendigo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5643949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisWalsh/pseuds/ArtemisWalsh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessica is stuck in the mines for over a week, and resorts to desperate measures when she finds the corpse of someone she knew. When she is rescued, she has some trouble reconnecting with her friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jessica

_Day 1_

How did I survive? 

I barely remember what happened. I screamed something into the forest, slammed the door, and then I was...I was grabbed. Pulled. It pulled me through the woods. I screamed. I screamed until my voice was hoarse and then I screamed until my throat was bleeding. My head hurt so much...so much. I can't even remember where I was going or what I saw, I just remember the pain. 

Mike. I was yelling about Mike. Mike was there for me. He was right behind me in the mines; he helped me. I wanted to pay him back, but they interrupted us. 

Oh god I'm so cold. I'm so cold.

I have to find something. Where am I? It's so cold. I fell. I was in an elevator. There was blackness. I blacked out. And then there was Mike. And then I fell. 

I try to stand up, but my leg hurts. Did I break it? What if that thing comes back? I can't walk. Can I walk?

OW IT HURTS! GOD IT HURTS TO MUCH TO STAND.

It's better now. Getting better. STILL HURTS. But not as much. I can walk. Slowly. Too slow. That thing was fast.

Where am I? A cave? A mine? The walls are all rock, and wet. Its too wet, and too dirty. It looks like those mines I was in earlier. With Mike. Where is Mike? Did that thing get him? It was right there when I fell. I could see it above him. Oh god, what if it got him? What if he's dead? Oh no oh no oh no. I never wanted this to happen.

What if I can't get out? What if that thing comes back and kills me? What if I'm lost here forever and I just starve to death? 

No. I can't do that. I have to find Mike. I have to get out. I have to get better. I have to. If I can...just...walk...forward...it feels...alright now. Like...if I walk on this leg more...it doesnt feel as bad. It still hurts...a lot, though. Maybe I can get out that way?

There's a jacket. Thank god. I put it on and I feel a bit warmer now. Maybe I won't freeze down here.  I'm making my way through the tunnel now. Slowly, but surely. My leg hurts, but only a little. It's letting me walk on it. I can do this. I can survive. 

There's a gas lantern on that table. And a lighter! I grab the lighter and use it to light the lantern. I have light. I can find my way out. These tunnels are so dark. How long was I out for? Hours? I look for my phone but it’s nowhere. Shit. I can’t call for help. No cell service on the mountain anyways. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can get to the lodge. The others are there. Unless the thing got to them too. 

Oh my god, what if there are more? What if that isn't the only thing of its kind out here? What if they're all over the place? Can I go forwards? Can I even go backwards? No, that thing knows where it left me. If I don't go, it could come back, and then I am dead. I have to go forwards. But everything hurts. I can't even walk, I can only limp. 

A while down the tunnels now. Everything’s cold and dark and wet. But not quiet. I can hear them. They’re calling out to each other, or maybe it’s just one. It’s screeching and shrieking and that’s echoing all through the caves. SHIT is that echolocation? Is that how they hunt? Oh my god what do I do?

I can feel a breeze. The entrance is right up ahead. But what if the creature is there? Waiting at the entrance of the cave for some idiot to walk in? If I go up there, it’ll see me.

Oh no. I hear something. I have to move. I can’t move, if I move I’m dead. I have to hide. Where? That door. I see a door there. Can I hide in there? This space is so small, but I can fit. I’m in. Oh god, the noise is getting closer.

It’s there. I see it. Through the boards, on the cave wall. It doesn’t see me. It doesn’t see me. I have to stay still. Isn’t that how echolocation works? It won’t see me if I don’t move? Fuck, I don’t know biology. It’s gone now. It leapt off, like some fucked up sort of frog. It was so quiet. How was it so quiet? If it hadn’t been making those shrieks I never would have known until it was too late. But I’m alive now, still.

What was that thing? It looked like a person, but bigger. Not bigger, longer. The arms and legs were long, and it was so thin. And its head. Fuck, its head. It was bald and it had big teeth and oh my god I’m going to die here. That thing wants to kill me. Its going to kill me.

I have to hide here. I can’t go out. I have to stay in here.

How long will I have to stay here?


	2. Chapter 2: Sam

_Day 2_

They haven’t found Jessica or Matt. The rangers told us to be patient, and that rescues take time. But we agreed. Me, Ashley, Emily, Mike, and Chris. If they don’t find the others in a day, it’s too late.

I’m at the hospital now. The explosion didn’t hurt me, but I did break my wrist when it knocked me forward. I have an x-ray tomorrow. Ashley looks really roughed up, but fortunately not any physical injuries. Same with the rest of us. We got lucky. 

I’ve tried to talk to everyone. They want us to stay in the hospital for now, but we’re allowed to walk around and to visit each other. Chris won’t talk to anyone but me or Ashley. He just said that he watched a man die in front of him, that one of his best friends put him through hell, and that Ashley is the only thing keeping him stable. Ashley said that she’s just gone completely numb. She can’t believe she survived. She goes between thinking that this is all a bad dream, the lodge and the caves and the wendigoes, and thinking that the hospital is too good to be true, and she’s going to wake up and still be in the lodge. When I asked her about Chris, she started crying, and said she’s happy he’s alive.

Emily and Mike talked earlier. I don't know what about, and neither will say. I can't imagine what its like for either of them, to have someone you love go missing, maybe dead, maybe...worse. We begged the rangers not to search for the others at night, to stay off the mountain entirely at night. I don't know if they're going to listen to that. 

"Hey" a voice startles me. I shoot up in bed, and then see Mike standing in the doorway of my room. Now that I've seen all my friends bloody and roughed up, seeing them clean is the best reassurance that this is really all over. We survived. Most of us, anyway. "Mind if I stay in here for a bit?"

"No problem," I say, weakly. 

He nods, says thanks, walks over to the chair, and falls into it, slumping down. "I need to be with someone right now."

"Weren't you just talking with Emily?" I blurt out. 

He chuckles. "Yeah, not sure how I'd describe that 'talk'. I apologized to her big time about the safe room...thing, and she apologized for being fully ready to leave my ass behind if it was me or her. We also talked about...Matt and Jess. When we'd last seen them, how we thought they were." He paused. "Emily last saw Matt on the tower. He was still on it when she fell, but she never saw his body so maybe..." His voice trailed off. 

"You think he's down in the mines still?"

Mike shook his head. "Emily said she was down there, and that there were wendigoes everywhere. She only escaped because of the stranger."

"How much did you guys talk about?" I blurted out again.

"A lot. I think we both needed to talk to someone." I knew exactly what he meant. After going through hell like that, you need someone who knows what you've been through. You need someone with the same scars. "I think she blames herself for Matt's death."

What? "We don't know he's dead." There was a sudden seriousness in my voice. 

Mike shook his head again. "Em thinks so, and she thinks its her fault. I wanted to tell her otherwise, but honestly? I wasn't there. I don't even know if he's dead."

"I think it’s easier for her to think he's dead." I said softly. "Better than doubt and uncertainty, I guess. That's what happened to Josh."

Josh. Oh god, Josh. I can't even talk about Josh. I open my mouth, but I can’t make the sounds. Mike looks at me for a moment, then lowers his head. A cold silence hangs between us for the next few minutes. “How are you?” I ask, so suddenly that Mike starts slightly in his chair.

He starts chuckling, “jumpy, apparently.” He rubs his face. “I watched Jessica die, man. I was right there and she spoke to me and then she fell. She fell so far.”

I want to reassure him. I want to say something positive or nice. We’re safe. We’re in a hospital. The wendigoes can’t harm us now. I want to be able to make him feel better. But I can’t. “I’m sorry, Mike. I’m so, so sorry.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was playing an Everyone Lives run and my brother remarked that Jessica looked "really fucked up" in chapter 10and said he hoped she hadn't eaten any flesh. I decided to turn that into a story idea. 
> 
> Keep in mind that Jessica is completely ignorant of everything. She was grabbed in Chapter 4 and then woke up at the end with no idea about anything and literally broken in many places. She'd be very messed up in the head.


End file.
